Category Archives: Teaching

Creative Play and How It Relates to Robotics Education

Posted on June 26, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

At the suggestion of a doctoral student I met at a robotics conference, I did a series of interviews with some of my elementary robotics students.  I started a program this year that consists of robotics projects at every grade … Continue reading →

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Quotes From Elementary Robotics Students

Posted on June 25, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

Here are some key quotes from the robotics interviews I conducted with students this year.  I will discuss them later.  Enjoy.  There are some great quotes that show what this robotics experience is like from the student’s point of view. … Continue reading →

Posted in Child Development, Research, Robotics, Teaching | 2 Comments

Robotics Interview Data

Posted on June 24, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

Here are some preliminary data from the robotics interviews I conducted this year.  I recorded responses when watching the video of the interviews and grouped the same or similar responses together.  There were lots of unique answers and I some … Continue reading →

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Robotics Interview Questions

Posted on June 23, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

I settled in on these interview questions after some trial and error. 1)   What did you like about project(s) you did this year?  How could we change robotics so they could be even better? 2)   Make on observation about their … Continue reading →

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Initial Impressions of Robotics Interviews

Posted on June 22, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

I started interviewing our robotics students yesterday.  Sixth graders were the first group to be interviewed.  I found it very valuable to take even a short time to talk to students about how they experience robotics.  It was interesting to … Continue reading →

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Mixing Different Kinds of Blocks

Posted on May 31, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

I tend to be on the neat (read OCD) side and I will, many times, ask my son to clean up one set of toys before starting a new one.  I have seen, in the past, that he will often … Continue reading →

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Take Aways From Tufts Conference

Posted on May 26, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

Here are some sketchy “take away” ideas from the Tufts conference. Having a clear problem definition is key in determining direction of lessons and how much “thrashing” students do at the beginning of the engineering project. How do we to … Continue reading →

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Video Analysis of Science Thinking

Posted on May 25, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

My workshop today was to really  time looking at kid’s science and engineering thinking and work.  Couple of things I noticed: 1)  In many cases, the problem was not as clearly defined as the teacher thought, which resulting in kids … Continue reading →

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Authentic Engineering Drawings

Posted on May 24, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

At the Tufts Lego Engineering Symposium, we were assigned the task of making a drawing of a device that could hover in a vertical wind tunnel powered by a fan.  After time ran out, we were told that the we … Continue reading →

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SimCity 2000 Tips For Kids

Posted on April 29, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

Build blocks of 6 by 6 squares in each one.  Make the roads go with the squares. Put your first power plant near a neighbor. Power lines will only go straight across a road and won’t go across a double … Continue reading →

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